Havana 100 minutes final (review)

Monorex detail (click to enlarge)

Well, I was lucky enough to score a last minute guest list pass to Havana 100 minutes Secret Wars final at Village Underground's awesome 5,000 sqm space in Shoreditch last night (mucho gratsi Emma/Balance PR). The gig kicked off with the usual hour or so of schmoozing with free cocktails courtesy of Havana Club, fantastic finger foods from JJ Catering, and some pretty nice dj styles from dj Session & friends.

Celebrating street art and Cuban culture in a creative and original style, Monorex v Intercity art-off began about 8pm, and ran for 100 minutes with a giant projection of the logo on the far wall acting as the clock (1 of the 100 pieces disappearing every minute) until the final countdown. The cocktail barmen and waiting staff were run ragged as the arty/streety/trendy/wanky punters packed the space and consumed as much free shit as their little faces could manage.

Intercity detail (click to enlarge)

Style-wise, in my opinion, Monorex kicked Intercity's ass, with a strong, considered piece created by the 5 artists using a fantastic style and solidity of line and colour. Intercity seemed to have 5 artists all working independently of each other, using a weak, almost single weight of line and a definite naive aesthetic. The only apparent point of teamwork for Intercity was at the beginning, when they painted a giant target in the background of their area, and at the end, when they paint bombed their entire piece (and the audience) with watered down red acrylic paint balls.

Judging (click to enlarge)

Judging was carried out by some members of the judging panel, and by the audience (measured with a decibel meter.

Monorex detail (click to enlarge)

Monorex detail (click to enlarge)

The party rolled on into the night, a good time had by all. My camera is completely stuffed now, so had to rely on my phone for the pics from the night - sorry, even photoshop can't help a pic that's shite to start with. I'm sure more pics will be posted up by others soon, as soon as their rum hangover wears off...

All Aboard For 100 Minutes Of Havana

Around August last year 100 Pieces of Havana project was run by design studio Intercity and Havana. This year sees Intercity working again with rum brand Havana Club on the next iteration of the project: 100 Minutes of Havana - a live, one-off art battle set to take place on Wednesday 4 March at East London’s railway arch venue, Village Underground. A selection of the artists due to take part in the art-off met up at the venue earlier this week to have a practice session, customizing one of the four underground train carriages that sit atop the venue…


A cleverly animated projection of Intercity’s 100 Minutes of Havana logo (above)will serve as a clock as Intercity’s Nathan Gale explains: “The original 100 Pieces logo was made from circles, representing 100 bottles – so for the 100 Minutes event we turned the circles into timers, each representing one minute. This also gives the logo a stencil-like aesthetic, making it perfect for the event. The art battle will be timed and a projection of the logo will animate the 100 minute countdown.”





Shown in these photos are artists Austin from NEW, Ian Stevenson, Andrew Rae, ALFA, Teck 1, Jimi Crayon, Mr K, Teck 1 and Stika – all practicing their various styles…

Whilst a whole range of pens, paints and spray cans were used here at the practice session, the rules of the forthcoming battle state that the artists will only be able to use colored acrylics and Edding pens on the 16ft high, 40ft wide white battle wall. The freestyle masterpieces created in battle will be created without the aid of sketches or pencils…

Going head to head in battle are two teams, one selected by Intercity from the artists that took part in last years 100 Pieces of Havana, the other put together by Monorex who organise the regular Secret Wars battle events. On the Intercity side of things are Ian Stevenson, Andrew Rae, Robbie Wilkinson, Andy Forshaw and Austin from NEW. And on the Monorex-selected team are the considerably more street sounding ALFA, Teck 1, Jimi Crayon, Mr K and Stika. The two teams will have 100 minutes to do their art thing - the work will then be judged by a Havana Club and Monorex representative as well as an all-important crowd vote, which will be decided using a decibel reader.

Special thanks to Havana Club, Emma@Balance PR, Monorex and Intercity for the pics and blurb.